Public safety was the recent focus in La Grange, as the Police Department welcomed a new police officer and a new property officer, and purchased two new squad cars.
Officer Branden Ochoa joins the La Grange Police Department after serving with police departments at METRA and Roselle.
“Ever since I was 8 years old, I always wanted to be a police officer,” the Evanston native said before being sworn in during a Jan. 13 Village Board meeting. “I’m super excited, everybody’s been so nice and welcoming and the chief’s been communicating through the whole process.”
Ochoa completed college course work at Indiana State University and now lives in Palatine.
Ochoa said his first priority as a La Grange officer would be to engage with La Grange residents.
“I love the community aspect of policing, so I just want to go out there and learn everything about the people, the environment and the community,” he said.
Police Chief Timothy Griffin said Ochoa’s four years of experience will make him an asset in La Grange.
“We’re excited to have him,” Griffin said. “Having an officer with experience already gives us the opportunity to not send him to the 16-week police academy, so it expedites the opportunity for us to get the person trained and on the road.”
It was not always the policy that La Grange sought to make “lateral” police hires from other departments.
But that policy came under scrutiny several years ago when the department ran into difficulty being fully manned during the pandemic. The current police contract, approved in October 2022, contained language allowing lateral hires.
It also provides for an additional “step” increase to recognize work done with other departments, meaning Ochoa will start at $82,231 per year, instead of the $73,042 for a new officer with no previous experience.
Ochoa will participate in the IMRF retirement plan and be eligible for all other health care and other benefits available to all department members.
Griffin said every new hire in the La Grange department still is required to attend the La Grange department’s 14-week field training program.
Ochoa’s hire means the department is fully staffed and Griffin said it looked promising to remain that way.
“We have a young department,” he said. “We’ve hired a lot of officers in recent years, so I would anticipate us to be quite stable for quite some time to come.”
The village also appointed retired Westchester police Sgt. Joe Manna as a new, part-time property officer. The position’s responsibilities are to maintain evidence taken into custody and ensure the chain of evidence is properly observed.
The job description for the position estimates 24-hour work weeks at a pay scale of between $27 and $30 per hour. Manna will participate in IMRF, but not be eligible for other village benefits.
Police Department equipment was also augmented with the purchase of two new police vehicles to replace vehicles past their useful service date.
One is a 2025 Ford Explorer, purchased from Currie Motors at a price of $40,514, coming in under the budgeted amount of $45,000.
The other is a 2025 Ford F250 4×4 pickup truck for a price of $48,127, again under the budgeted amount of $55,000.
The next La Grange Village Board meeting will be at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 27 at the La Grange Village Hall, 53 S. La Grange Rd.
Hank Beckman is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
